As it was mentioned in the UK Prime Minister's press conference, school and other closures may come at some point over the coming weeks or months when the outbreak really gets going in order to break the peak.
Right now, school closures are not the most effective instrument as the spread will pick up again as soon as they are reopened when you do this too early in the process for too short a time - you can't keep them closed for months!
Punctual closures make sense where there is a developing hot spot, widespread measures only if specific areas or whole countries are very badly hit at any time in order to slow down and help break the peak (like what has happened in Wuhan, South Korea and is now happening in Italy) in order to keep the health services and the economy functioning as best as possible during the very worst of it.
Like with a severe piggy illness, you have to constantly assess and reassess which measures will help most and are appropriate at any stage. The same is happening with each country on a larger scale. Like with a piggy illness, there is not necessarily one single medication or measure that does the trick; it is a combination of medical and non-medical support measures that can be adapted and used for best efficiency as and when needed.
Some will try to step in sooner, some will play it down for too long and jump in with a big splash and throw the kitchen sink at it, while others will rather try to ride the wave and break the peak of it now that stopping the pandemic from spreading has been proven futile. This is unchartered territory.
Only analysis from hindsight will show which countries have got it more right and have come through it best so that these lessons can be then fed into future preparation and management of other bugs. We live in an overcrowded and highly connected world where the number of contacts to animals have multiplied, so this has always been a question of 'when' (or increasingly 'how soon') and never one of 'if'.
The best you can do is not to panic, take more than is your own due in order to selfishly just protect yourself and your closest family (unless you have somebody in a high risk category) at the cost of other more vulnerable people, check anything you are unsure of from social media against the information in the links mentioned (it is a good idea to bookmark them), stick to reliable news services if possible and concentrate on helping those around you as much as possible in the coming months instead of panicking.
The more we can help each other as a society and neighbourhood to help protect the weak, the better we come through it and the easier we will recover from this experience. The one good thing is that most children are actually not at risk of having Covid-19 any worse than a normal cold.
PS: I feel very sorry for the people in the USA with having to battle a combination of inadequate health service access and an incompetent president. I do worry a lot.
Also, I feel really sorry for the Americans who can't afford the healthcare. At least here in the UK, we have the NHS and we don't have the extra worry of paying before and after getting treatments.
